(Source
and date unknown. Article written for children; possibly for Junior Scholastic
Magazine)

By
Michael Cusack

There's a "flap"
on. And it may be the biggest ever.

NICAP says so!

What's a flap? Who's
NICAP?

In this case, a flap
is a lot of UFO (unidentified flying object) reports. Many, many Americans
have recently said that they've seen strange things in the sky. A few people
have even said that they've seen strange creatures -- on the ground.

Some of these reports
sound reasonable. Others sound weird and wild.

Each and every UFO
report is of special interest to NICAP -- National Investigations Committee
on Aerial Phenomena. This committee is a group of people that examines
UFO sighting reports. There are several similar private UFO study groups
in the world. However, many scientists consider NICAP to be the "best"
of those groups. These scientists feel that NICAP's investigations are
usually careful, fair, and reasonable.

For several years
-- up to the summer of 1973 -- NICAP and similar groups had little to do.

Why? Very few reports
of UFO sightings were coming in.

Back in the 1950's
there was a big flap. Thousands of people said they saw "flying saucers."
(Few people call UFO's "flying saucers" now.) There was a small
flap in the early 1960's. Then as the years passed, fewer and fewer UFO
reports came in. By 1973, some people wondered, "Where have all the
UFO's gone?"

Now, the UFO's "are
back in force." And groups such as NICAP are busier than beavers.

The present UFO flap
seems to have begun in Texas. In the spring of 1973, the Dallas Times Herald
ran some stories about a UFO "crash" in April, 1897. A small,
shiny, "cigar-shaped" craft was said to have crashed into a windmill
in Aurora, Texas. The strange craft's tiny pilot was said to have been
"blown to pieces."

How did the Times
Herald learn about the "crash"? Bill Case, a reporter, found
the story in an 1897 Dallas newspaper.

Later, Bill Case
and a treasure-hunter named Frank Kelley went to the "crash site."
They dug up a few scraps of "strange-looking" metal. By mid-June,
news reporters, curiosity seekers, and UFO fans were piling into Aurora.
A new interest in UFO's was born -- at least in that part of Texas.

Around the same time,
Mrs. Marie Harris, of Garland, Texas, said that there was a strange thing
growing in her backyard. It was "as big as a platter, foamy and creamy,
and pale yellow." It also "pulsated like a beating heart."
When Mrs. Harris hacked it with a hoe, it "bled," she said. Its
"blood" was a red and purple goo.

People called it
"The Blob." A biologist from the University of Texas called it
a fungus. Finally, sunlight seemed to kill it.

A national news magazine
linked the story of "The Blob" with the story of the old UFO
"crash" at Aurora. That magazine story, surely, must have set
great numbers of people thinking about visitors from outer space.

In the summer and
early fall of 1973, more stories of UFO sightings started to trickle in.
By mid-October, that trickle had turned into a flood of UFO sightings.

A farmer in Georgia
said that a strange, glowing, egg-shaped object landed on his property
and took off again. In Louisiana, sheriff's deputies chased five orange-red
lights through 12 miles of piney woods.

A woman in Rockville,
Maryland said she saw a huge craft, shaped like a "double-decked ferris
wheel," streaking over the town.

National Park Service
ranger Tom Westmoreland was cruising the Natchez Trace Parkway in Mississippi
an a warm October evening. He spotted a car by the side of the road. He
pulled over. Two people from the car pointed to the sky. Ranger Westmoreland
looked up. Then he saw a strange "vehicle hanging in the air."
"Under the fuselage, if you can call it that,"the ranger explained,
"glowed red, yellow, and green pulsing lights."

Paul Brown of Athens,
Georgia, said that a silver, egg-shaped object landed on the road in front
of his car, as he was driving one evening. He slammed on his brakes. Then,
he said, two small people-like creatures came out of the craft and headed
toward him. Mr. Brown waved a gun. The two creatures darted back into the
craft . . . and whooshed away.

Police Chief Jeff
Greenshaw of Falkville, Alabama, was driving to an area where a UFO had
been reported. As he turned a bend in the road, Chief Greenshaw said he
saw "a man-shaped thing in a reflector-ized silver suit." The
thing ran away. But the police chief claims to have taken pictures of the
thing. (We haven't been able to get prints of those pictures, yet.)

From Gulfport, Mississippi,
people reported that "strange creatures with weirdly shaped heads"
had been stopping cars on Route 90. Some reports said that the "strange
creatures were scratching at car windows with their claws."

Perhaps, the strangest
story of all was told by Calvin Parker and Charles Hickson of Pascagoula,
Mississippi. The two men said that they were fishing from a wharf on the
Pascagoula River. The date was October 11. As they fished, the said, a
strange, fish-shaped blue craft landed near them. Three creatures came
out of the craft. The creatures had pointed ears and wrinkled, silvery
skin. The creatures forced the two fishermen to go inside the fish-shaped
craft. After a while, the creatures let the men go. And the fish-shaped
craft whooshed away.

[UFO
abductee Calvin Parker] (UPI photo)

Many people claimed
that they were chased by UFO's. Mrs. Irmgard Lincoln, of Washington, DC,
says that she is in "telepathic contact with the people in the UFO's."
She says that those people will soon land all over the Earth. But, she
says, "they will come as our friends." Mrs. Lincoln gives UFO
lectures at a place called the Cosmic Academy.

Usually, scientists
don't consider people like Mrs. Lincoln to be "good" witnesses.
But the scientists can't ignore the words of someone such as John J. Gilligan,
the governor of Ohio.

At a press conference
in October, Gov. Gilligan was asked about reports of UFO sightings in Ohio.
Then, he startled newsmen by saying: "I saw one the other night, so
help me."

Gov. Gilligan described
an amber-colored beam of light that he saw while driving on Route 23. The
Governor said, "I'm absolutely serious. I saw this. It was not a plane.
It was not a bird. It didn't wear a cape. And I really-don't know what
it was."

There's little doubt
that stories of UFO sightings lead to more reports of UFO sightings. The
UFO stories also lead to pranks and hoaxes. On October 20, 1973, most of
the 68,000 people attending a night football game at the Tiger Stadium
in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, saw a strange object. During halftime, a brightly
glowing thing moved over the stadium with a police helicopter chasing it.
The UFO was captured. It turned out to be an inflated plastic garment bag
with a candle inside.

In Greenwood, Delaware,
car drivers stopped to stare at a saucer-shaped circle of flashing lights
near a road. Traffic backed up. The police came. It turned out that the
lights were put up by five volunteer firemen. It was just a joke. But the
police didn't think it was a joke. The firemen were arrested for disorderly
conduct.

Many UFO sightings
have been traced to pranks. Several other UFO's turned out to be planes,
planets, and reflected lights. A National Weather Service spokesman said
that many weather balloons were launched throughout the southern U.S. during
October. Many of those balloons could have been reported as UFO's.

But scientists agree
that pranks, planes, planets, and weather balloons don't explain all UFO
sightings. And that brings up some questions.

Are some UFO's "real"?
Could they be space vehicles sent to Earth from some other place in the
universe?

Most Americans think
so! A recent Gallup poll showed that 51 per cent of the people interviewed
believe that UFO's are real. What's more, 11 per cent of the people said
that they'd actually seen UFO's.

What does the U.S.
government think of UFO's? From 1947 to 1969, the U.S. Air Force studied
UFO sightings. And, from 1966 through 1968, University of Colorado scientists
made an independent study of the subject for the Air Force.

These studies showed
that most UFO's were really planes, planets, balloons, frauds, reflected
light, or freakish weather. However, the scientists making the studies
weren't able to explain all UFO sightings. But the scientists felt that
there was no evidence that UFO's are spaceships from another planet.

Dr. Edward Condon
headed the University of Colorado study. This is what he says: "If
you define a UFO as a visitor from outer space, there's no evidence they
exist. I've never seen one. I think further study of UFO's would be scientifically
useless. I think my own study of UFO's was a waste of government money."

Many scientists tend
to agree with Dr. Condon. But one noted scientist sharply disagrees with
him. That scientist is J. Allen Hynek, head of the Dearborn Observatory
of Northwestern University.

Dr. Hynek is a highly
respected astronomer. He is also a believer in UFO's. He has written many
books and articles on the subject.

Dr. Hynek says that
the Air Force studies of UFO's were incomplete and "shoddy."
He feels that it's time for a new, sane, sensible, scientific study of
the subject.

Recently, Dr. Hynek
said, "For a quarter century the UFO phenomenon has been the subject
of gross misconceptions, misinformation, ridicule, buffoonery, and unscientific
approach. The fact that reports persist -- from many countries -- presents
a mystery that demands explanation."

To help explain that
mystery, Dr. Hynek formed the Center for UFO Studies in December, 1973.
This center will collect and examine UFO reports from all over the world.

Some scientists believe
that the final explanation of the UFO mystery may be "in our minds."
Psychologist Lester Grinspoon of Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, feels
that many UFO sightings may be imaginary. (Psychologists are people who
are trained to study human feelings, emotions, and behavior.) He says that
people may start seeing things as a psychological reaction to the stresses
of modern living.

Several other psychologists
take a similar view. They say that, in a time when there is a lot of "bad
news," people may start imagining things.

These psychologists
point out that the news was bad for very many Americans during October.
War raged in the Middle East. Prices soared. Severe oil shortages were
expected. Then on October 10, Spiro Agnew quit as Vice President of the
United States. The Watergate crisis seemed to be getting worse. And many
people talked about impeaching President Nixon.

October was a bad
month all around. And it was during October that most UFO sightings were
reported.

What do you think
about UFO's? Are they all planes, planets, balloons, or wild imaginings?
Or ... could some of them be visitors from another world?